Volume 156, No. 35 covering the 2nd Session of the 111th Congress (2009 - 2010) was published by the Congressional Record.
The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“HARMFUL ALGAL BLOOMS AND HYPOXIA RESEARCH AND CONTROL AMENDMENTS ACT OF 2010” mentioning the Environmental Protection Agency was published in the Extensions of Remarks section on pages E358 on March 11, 2010.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
HARMFUL ALGAL BLOOMS AND HYPOXIA RESEARCH AND CONTROL AMENDMENTS ACT OF
2010
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speech of
HON. BLAINE LUETKEMEYER
of missouri
in the house of representatives
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Mr. LUETKEMEYER. Madam Speaker, yesterday, the House voted down H.R. 3650, the Harmful Algal Blooms and Hypoxia Research and Control Amendments Act. This bill would have cost an estimated $153 million of taxpayer dollars for 2010 through 2014 and $22 million after 2014 to establish a new task force charged with responding to hypoxia events and, among other items, implementing and overseeing the regional research and action plans. I joined with 141 of my colleagues and voted against this misguided bill. I understand and appreciate that the health of our rivers is of vital importance to the 9th district of Missouri and to the Nation, and I believe that responsible environmental management is critically important to national commerce and infrastructure. However, agriculture has been forced to bear the brunt of environmental attacks for long enough. While the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA, point the finger at agriculture as a contributor of gulf hypoxia, particularly through the dumping of sediment and runoff of fertilizer, the Army Corps of Engineers, Corps, at the direction of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is digging chutes that are up to 25 feet deep, 200 to 300 feet wide, and sometimes over one mile long to provide shallow water habitat for the endangered pallid sturgeon. According to the Missouri Clean Water Commission, the Corps will dump 34 million metric tons of sediment into the Missouri River annually. This soil contains a significant amount of phosphorous, a known cause of hypoxia. All of this without facing fines from the EPA, which have been levied against farmers and businesses along the river, because the Corps was able to obtain a Clean Water Act Section 404 permit granted by themselves. Instead of continually attacking agriculture and small business and trivially spending hard earned taxpayer dollars, perhaps the Federal Government should spend some time investigating its own actions.
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